Posted on 10/04/2012 6:00:25 PM PDT by Hotlanta Mike
The man who went to school with both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and predicted the president would "smoke" the Republican nominee says he is dumbfounded by Obama's poor showing in the first debate.
"I'm surprised. I was shocked, actually," Sidney Barthwell, a district court magistrate in Michigan who attended Cranbrook with Romney and Harvard Law School with Obama, told The Daily. "That was not the Barack Obama I’ve seen through the years. I’m thinking the man might have had the flu or something."
Barthwell, who has remained friendly with both candidates over the years and is staying neutral in the presidential race, said earlier this year that he expected Obama to dominate in the face-offs.
“When they debate, Barack will smoke Romney,” Barthwell, 64, told The Daily in May. “Mitt Romney is smart,” he said at the time. “Having said all that, I still think he’s going to get smoked. The best he can do is hopefully come out not looking like a fool. Mitt will find out the hard way as soon as they have their first debate: You don’t debate Obama.”
Barthwell, the only black graduate of Mitt Romney's 1965 class at Cranbrook Schools, the prestigious boarding school in suburban Detroit, said Romney's former classmates have been pulling for the president.
"There’s been a lot of emails going back and forth between people in my class. The vast majority of them are very supportive of Barack and not Mitt Romney," he said. "It’s surprising to me because Cranbrook was a very conservative type of place."
Thursday, Barthwell said he barely recognized the president who appeared on stage at the first presidential debate this week in Denver. The Michigan man said his former law school classmate seemed out of it. "You never see Barack looking down all the time," he said of the president's performance Wednesday night, widely panned as lackluster, at best. "He was actually stumbling over his words. That was not the real Barack Obama in my opinion."
Barthwell also said the president was unusually reserved, even in the face of full-on attacks from Romney - a possible sign, he suggested, of Obama's acute awareness of the politics of race. "It’s possible he doesn't want to appear to be the angry-black man type," Barthwell said.
And the magistrate said it's likely that Romney -- who he described back in May as "not an athlete," "not a student leader" and "not a scholar" -- was simply better prepared for the debate. "Mitt Romney is a smart guy," he said. "He must have prepared for this debate and it was obvious."
mara.gay@thedaily.com
Neutral? BS!!! (puzzled by the $250 to Romney , though. The rest went to obozo):
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=MI&last=Barthwell&first=Sidney
Contributor
Candidate or PAC
Amount
Date
FEC Filing
Barthwell, Sidney Jr
Detroit, MI 48214
36Th District Court-Detroit, MI/Mag
DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE (D)
$2,500
primary
10/11/10
Barthwell, Sidney
Detroit, MI 48214
36th District Detroit/Magistrate
MILES, PATRICK A JR (D)
House (MI 03)
PAT MILES FOR CONGRESS
$250
general
10/05/10
Barthwell, Sidney Jr
Detroit, MI 48214
36Th District Court-Detroit, MI/Mag
OBAMA, BARACK (D)
President
OBAMA VICTORY FUND
$1,450
primary
10/27/08
Barthwell, Sidney Jr
Detroit, MI 48214
36Th District Court-Detroit, MI/Mag
OBAMA, BARACK (D)
President
OBAMA FOR AMERICA
$2,300
primary
06/30/08
Barthwell, Sidney Jr
Detroit, MI 48214
36Th District Court-Detroit, MI/Mag
OBAMA, BARACK (D)
President
OBAMA FOR AMERICA
$-750
primary
06/30/08
Barthwell, Sidney Jr
Detroit, MI 48214
36Th District Court-Detroit, MI/Mag
OBAMA, BARACK (D)
President
OBAMA FOR AMERICA
$750
general
06/30/08
Barthwell, Sidney Jr
Detroit, MI 48214
36Th District Court-Detroit, MI/Mag
OBAMA, BARACK (D)
President
OBAMA FOR AMERICA
$250
primary
05/07/08
Barthwell, Sidney Jr
Detroit, MI 48214
36Th District Court-Detroit, MI/Mag
OBAMA, BARACK (D)
President
OBAMA FOR AMERICA
$250
primary
02/12/08
Barthwell, Sidney Jr
Detroit, MI 48214
36Th District Court-Detroit, MI/Mag
OBAMA, BARACK (D)
President
OBAMA FOR AMERICA
$250
primary
06/07/07
BARTHWELL, SIDNEY MR. JR.
DETROIT, MI 48214
SIDNEY BARTHWELL/ATTORNEY
ROMNEY, MITT (R)
President
ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT INC.
$250
primary
03/29/07
.
for someone purporting to be neutral, he sure has the latest Dem. talking point (excuse) down pat.
Yeah, right. Let's see...Obama was fine the day before out in his swanky hotel prepping for the debates. He was fine when he walked in. And he was fine today back out on the campaign trail where he enjoyed his normal routine of ridiculing Mitt and said, about last night "that wasn't the real Mitt Romney."
So as soon as Obama stood behind the podium he must have been hit by a Two-hour flu bug! A sudden striking, weakening, sweat-producing, stammer-causing illness that caused him to appear dazed and obviously delusional if he thought the real Romney wasn't there! ROFLOL These Libs never, never, never stop searching for excuses for Obama.
Very good obervation.
“”There’s been a lot of emails going back and forth between people in my class. The vast majority of them are very supportive of Barack and not Mitt Romney,” he said. “It’s surprising to me because Cranbrook was a very conservative type of place.””
I went to University School, then in Shaker Heights, and we battled Cranbook in all sports. We never talked politics. I would be quite surprised if University alumni supported bamy!
Check out the latest Daily Doom antidote at hillbuzz.org.
You may have to scroll down a bit to see the article in question.
Kevin doesn’t think it was the flu.
The Slims?
Romney born 1947 and Obama born 1961....and they have a classmate in common?
Wow my Mom (RIP) went to Shaker with Paul Newman and my cousin went there with Roger Penske.
“BARTHWELL, SIDNEY JR
DETROIT, MI 48214
36TH DISTRICT COURT-DETROIT, MI
DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
10/11/2010 2500.00 10931717372
OBAMA, BARACK
VIA OBAMA FOR AMERICA
06/07/2007 250.00 28991922407
02/12/2008 250.00 28992086429
05/07/2008 250.00 11972231262
06/30/2008 -750.00 11972352238
06/30/2008 750.00 11972352239
06/30/2008 2300.00 11972352238
09/27/2011 250.00 12970010825
BARTHWELL, SIDNEY JR.
DETROIT, MI 48214
36TH DISTRICT COURT/MAGISTRATE
OBAMA, BARACK
VIA OBAMA FOR AMERICA
02/03/2012 250.00 12951914835
BARTHWELL, SIDNEY MR. JR.
DETROIT, MI 48214
36TH DISTRICT COURT DETROIT MI 48
ROMNEY, MITT / RYAN, PAUL D.
VIA ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT INC.
02/03/2012 250.00 12951542580
BARTHWELL, SIDNEY MR. JR.
DETROIT, MI 48214
SIDNEY BARTHWELL
ROMNEY, MITT / RYAN, PAUL D.
VIA ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT INC.
03/29/2007 250.00 27931483675 “
Seems a little DNC oriented LOL!
The answer to that is easy: so he could continue to claim his "neutral" position!! Important both as a judge AND as someone who gets interviewed by the media. Can't look biased, dontcha know!!!
Tonight in New Orleans on 99.5 on the John Osterland radio show a regular rat stooge caller nick named ‘Liberal Dave’ said the same thing. This is a meme the rats are pushing. I wonder if DU didn't roll this out as a ‘talking point’ almost as soon as the debate ended to give the sheeple wolves their howling cue.
Great resource. Used to always catch the media touting a Dem donor as ‘neutral’ or even ‘Republican’. Not so much anynore.
So, are you saying Romney was the real Romney, but Barack was not the real Barack? Barack is saying that Romney was the not the real Romney - perhaps an imposter. Maybe, both Barack AND Romney were both imposters... and both not real! Folks, there is a mystery here... if the Barack was not the real Barack, then the fake Barack should go look for the real Barack. If Romney was not the real Romney, then the fake Romney should go look for the real Romney... or, if that WAS the real Barack, the real Barack should go look for the real Romney!
The man is a liar and this reporter got rolled.
Obama 1st year at Havard was 1988. Romney was there in 1971
Romney is the son of Lenore and George W. Romney (Governor of Michigan, 1963–69). Raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, beginning in 1966, he spent thirty months in France as a Mormon missionary. In 1969, he married Ann Davies, and the couple had five children together. In 1971, he earned a Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University and, in 1975, a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Harvard University. Romney entered the management consulting industry and in 1977 he secured a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as its chief executive officer, he helped bring the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he cofounded and led the spin-off company Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm that became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation. His net worth is estimated at $190–250 million, wealth that helped finance his political campaigns prior to 2012.
In late 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year,[39] and president of the journal in his second year.[33][40] During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[41] After graduating with a J.D. magna cum laude[42] from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.[39] Obama’s election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention[33][40] and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations,[43] which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.[43]
DON’T matter...70 million BABYYYYYYY!! 70 million saw and heard the truth!! YEAH!! Spin it up your mediaWHORE butts!!
I don’t think Paul or Roger lasted very long at University School.
Sounds to me that he lacks stamina and isn’t physically able to be president.
I don't think Obama has made very many decisions in the WH, nor does he have any idea what the correct procedure is to pass legislation through congress. Pretty hard to debate a subject like presidential decisions when you're unfamiliar with them.
No this was Shaker Hts High
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